Background
Shepley, George Foster was born on January 1, 1819 in Saco, Maine, United States. Son of Ether and Anna (Foster) Shepley.
governor judge lawyer mayor officer politician
Shepley, George Foster was born on January 1, 1819 in Saco, Maine, United States. Son of Ether and Anna (Foster) Shepley.
Born in Saco, Maine, Shepley studied law at Harvard University, and then received an Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1837.
He was appointed military and 18th Governor of Louisiana by General Benjamin Butler in June 1862. He later served as a United States federal judge. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1839.
He began the practice of law the same year, and was in private practice in Bangor, Maine from 1839 to 1844 and in Portland, Maine from 1844 to 1861.
He was a United States. Attorney for the District of Maine from 1848 to 1849 and from 1853 to 1861. Shepley joined the army in November 1861 as a colonel of the 12th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
He served as the acting military mayor of New Orleans from May 20, 1862 – July 11, 1862. This appointment lasted less than two months before Shepley was appointed military governor of the occupied parishes of Louisiana from 1862–1864, with the rank of brigadier general.
Shepley later served as the first military governor of Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital.
After the war, Shepley returned to his private practice in Portland in 1865. On December 8, 1869, Shepley was nominated by President Ulysses South. Grant to a new seat on the United States circuit court for the First Circuit created by 16 Statistics 44. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 22, 1869, and received his commission the same day.
He continued in that office until his death.
He died in Portland, Maine, on July 20, 1878, and is interred at Evergreen Cemetery in that city. His tombstone has his birth date as January 1, 1819.
He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1866 to 1867, and continued in private practice until 1869.
Married Lucy A. Hayes, July 24, 1844. Married second, Helen Merrill, May 23, 1872.